This invention relates to an apparatus for defacing paper money and other securities by punching.
Different arrangements with one or two manually operated punching tools are actually presently used for defacing paper money. There are punching devices based on the principle of screw presses. Arrangements are also used which are based on the principle of boring appliances wherein a rotating cutting tool cuts an opening of predetermined diameter in a package of paper money, such apparatus employing a manually generated axial thrust imposed upon the cutting tool.
Paper money is punched to deface it in packages of a predetermined number of sheets; such number has to be checked by counting the money both prior to and after it has been defaced.
Due to the rotary cutting movement of the tool, arrangements based on the principle of boring do not allow a constant pressure to be imposed upon the tool, as the tool, when it penetrates into the paper package, digs in and tears out parts of individual sheets of paper or of a number of such sheets. Since synthetic resins are added to the paper mass in the manufacture of paper money, the cutting tool quickly becomes dull and is subsequently impaired by heat generated by friction. Another drawback of arrangements based on this principle is that for the same reasons a rotating head with a number of cutting tools cannot be used. With both arrangements based on the principle of punching or cutting tools, the punched or cut openings in the package are located irregularly over the surface of the paper money. Due to the character of the punching operation performed on the package, which results in a sticking together of individual sheets along the whole circumference of the punched openings or in the tearing off of borders of the openings and the mutual wedging together of individual sheets, it is impossible to perform the counting of the punched sheets of the package mechanically. The entire process of defacing paper money is therefore carried out manually. This requires a substantial physical stress for the manually operated arrangements for the punching of packages, and also requires much time for the proper punching and the subsequent counting of the punched sheets in a package.
A condition for the mechanization of operations in connection with the defacing of paper money in packages is that the holes or openings in the sheets should always be located at the same place on their surfaces without any deviations. Other conditions are that these openings should be of the same dimensions, and that the individual sheets should not stick together at the circumferences of the punched openings, but should be easily separated by turning over the punched sheets of paper money.